


A Little Problem

by Anonymous



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Accidents, Age Regression/De-Aging, Autistic Keith (Voltron), Diapers, Gen, I will probably continue this, Non-Sexual Age Play, Trans Keith (Voltron), broganes, cg!shiro, little!Keith, pre-kerberos, something short and sweet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:13:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22768318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Keith has a very big secret that he’s kept to himself for a very long time. But after one particularly bad day, Shiro finds out about it. And maybe, just maybe he won’t have to be alone.
Relationships: Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 135
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please read the tags, this story contain non-sexual age regression, if that’s not your thing, you know where the back button is. If it is, then I hope you like this, the idea came to mind and I wanted to get it out.

"Where did it go? Where did it go? Where did it go?" Keith's words became a whispered mantra as he searched his room top to bottom.

He had had a very long day, a whole hoard of middle schoolers and their parents had been touring the Garrison that day. Despite his checkered past with behavioral issues, he had been expected to lead a group of them on tour. The higher ups had said it was good for them to see someone who was in the cadet program. So he'd spent the whole day with a fake smile plastered on his face and he'd dealt with the middle schoolers—and worse, their parents—without yelling at anybody.

Now he desperately needed to relax; he was teetering on the edge of the sort of shutdown that came with overexerting himself socially. He could already feel himself slipping toward semi-verbal and that would lead quickly to nonverbal. This wasn't uncommon for him, but he had a presentation the next day and he needed to be able to talk for it. Rescheduling was too much of a hassle.

But in order to talk he needed to relax and in order to relax he needed to regress and that meant he needed his pacifier.

"Where is it?" He huffed in frustration and knocked his pencil cup off his desk. His eyes prickled with angry tears and he plopped himself down in the middle of his rug. Now was not the ideal time to regress to an angry toddler, but he had little choice in the matter.

Keith was lucky enough to not have a roommate. That meant there was nobody to question him about the too big hippo stuffie on his bed or the stack of coloring books he kept in his desk drawer. He wouldn't get teased for the few babyish outfits he had and nobody could say anything about his pacifier. It was better that way. Enough people grumbled about his presence at the Garrison, his age regression would likely be the final nail for some of the higher ups. Fighter pilots don't regress to three year olds because of stress.

His thumb was far from an ideal replacement for his pacifier, but he shoved it in his mouth anyway and curled into a ball on the rug. It was nap time.

When he woke up a few hours later, his thumb was wrinkled and he was back in his big headspace but still on the edge. His head throbbed sully as he stood up.

"Fuck," he grumbled to himself. Had he slept any longer, he would have slept through dinner.

His hair was a tangled mess, but nothing that a hair tie couldn't tame. That was a regret to save for later. The wrinkles in his uniform weren't salvageable which was unfortunate since it was his last clean one. He made a mental note to do laundry later and smoothed his hands over the collar. He could take whatever demerits he might get for going to dinner in a wrinkled uniform.

Keith half ran to make it to the cafeteria before the food lines closed. He was the last person to grab a tray and get a helping of whatever vaguely brown meat and tangentially green vegetable they were serving. He made another mental note to stock up on canned soup the next time he went to a store.

He took his tray to the first empty table he found, but he hadn't even managed to eat a bite before he was joined by company.

"Thanks for agreeing to your room being open for tours," Shiro smiled brightly at him when he sat down with his dinner tray. "I made sure to clean it up after my last group went through. People drop more things than you'd expect."

"Like what?" Keith grumbled. Shiro was used to his grouchy moods so he didn't bother hiding it.

"Candy wrappers, empty bottle, garrison maps," Shiro listed. "Some kid dropped a pacifier. Threw that away, figured you wouldn't want to touch it."

Keith's eyes snapped up. A pacifier? _His pacifier_. "What color was it?" He couldn't help the desperation in his voice.

"Huh? Oh, um, yellow I think. I didn't get a good look at it."

Keith's bottom lip wobbled. That was his pacifier and now it was gone and he wouldn't be able to get a new one because he'd have to ask someone to take him to a store and they would think he was a baby. He wasn't a baby! He wasn't.

"Keith, are you okay?" Shiro's voice managed to snap Keith out of his thought spiral.

He scrubbed at the tears that formed in the corners of his eyes and stared down at his plate. "'M fine," he mumbled.

"No you're not, you're shaking." Damn Shiro and his observational skills. "Keith, can you look at me?"

Keith didn't want to, not when he knew his face was red and his eyes shiny with tears, but Shiro's voice was so gentle that he found himself looking anyway. "Yeah."

"I'm worried about you," Shiro told him. "Do you want to take our dinners to your room so we can talk?"

Keith thought about it and oh so subtly nodded.

"That's great buddy!" Shiro grinned. "I'll carry the plates."

Keith shuffled his feet as he walked. It took all his might to not stick his thumb in his mouth in public. He had never been this close to his little headspace in the presence of another person. He stopped to take a deep breath outside his door as he fumbled for his key; he needed to be big for whatever conversation was about to happen.

"What do you wanna talk 'bout?" Keith asked as he took his plate from Shiro. His speech was still a little stilted and babyish, but it was better than he expected for how close he was to going semi-verbal.

"Do you trust me?" Shiro asked.

Keith nodded hesitantly.

"I want to ask you a question, okay?"

He nodded again.

"Did I throw away your pacifier?" Shiro spoke so casually that he could have just as easily been referring to an unfinished drink.

"N-" Keith opened his mouth to deny it, but cut himself off. The part of him that was little was screaming for someone to look after him and Shiro was right there and he was so nice and maybe, maybe he wouldn't think Keith was weird for this. "Yes," he whispered.

"Oh, Keith, I'm sorry," Shiro apologized. He wasn't freaking out, that had to be a good sign. "I didn't know it was yours."

"S'okay." Keith was still dangerously close to slipping.

"How about this, I have time off this weekend and I'll take you into town and we'll get you a new one?" Shiro offered with a big smile. "And you can pick out anything else you want, my treat."

That was enough to get Keith's eyes to light up. "Really?!" His voice slid up an octave. "Anything?"

"Of course buddy," Shiro ruffled his hair.

Keith hummed in delight and started eating his dinner to keep from saying anything embarrassing. He didn't know how, but it seemed like Shiro had guessed what was going on without many clues.

By the time he finished eating, his previously sour mood had done a one-eighty. He was still sad about his pacifier, but he was happy that he was going to get a new one. And he was even happier that Shiro wasn't making a big deal of this. His little side was winning out over his big side.

Keith scooted toward Shiro and gently tugged on his sleeve. "Play with me?" He asked, a hopeful glint in his eyes.

Shiro has finished eating too and he set both of their empty trays aside. "What do you want to play?" His smile was open and non-judgmental.

Keith shuffled over to his desk and pulled open his drawer full of little stuff. He didn't have much, but he did have a few coloring books and some blocks. "Color?"

"Sure," Shiro walked over next to him and looked over the books he had available. "Do I get to color too?"

Keith nodded and shoved the animal coloring book at Shiro, he was keeping the solar system book for himself. "Crayons," he pointed up to his still knocked over pencil cup.

Shiro gathered up a handful of crayons and took a seat on the rug next to where Keith had already sprawled out. "I'll put these in the middle. You'll have to share, is that okay?"

Keith nodded again as he searched for the perfect page. He had to flip through three-fourths of the book before finding one: a spaceship landed on a moon of a big planet.

His thumb found its way back into his mouth as he worked and small furrow formed between his eyebrows. He took red crayon first for the spots on the planet and the yellow crayon for stripes on the planet and then the gray and brown for the moon and then black for the spaceship. He needed orange for the design on the spaceship and the darker yellow for other stripes on the planet.

"Share," Shiro reminded him gently, holding up the only three remaining crayons. "This kitten is going to be blue, green, and purple," he said. "You took everything else."

Keith looked down and realized he did have most of the crayons in front of him. "Sorry," he mumbled around his thumb. He picked them up and dropped them into the middle again.

“Thank you, Keith,” Shiro smiled and picked up some of the crayons from the middle.

Keith smiled back and started to work on his picture again. This time he made sure to put a crayon back in the middle every time he wanted a new one.

He was content to suck on his thumb and color quietly until the picture was done. “All done!” He held the page toward Shiro proudly. “Look! I’s Jupiter an’ Ganymede.”

“Is it!” Shiro made a show of gasping. “You did such a good job, Keith!”

Keith furrowed his brow and tore the page along the perforated line. Once he had pulled it out cleanly, he ducked his head and offered it to Shiro. “For you.”

Shiro took the page daintily as if he was afraid of harming it. “Thanks, buddy. I’ll put it up in my apartment.”

Keith opened his mouth to respond, but was instead cut off by a yawn.

“Are you tired?” Shiro asked.

“N-” another yawn cut off his denial. He nodded sheepishly instead.

“Hmm,” Shiro glanced at his watch. “Would you look at that, it is bedtime. Do you want me to tuck you in?”

Keith’s eyes lit up. Nobody had tucked him in in years! He needed to be in bed right now. “Yeah!” He stood up quickly and stumbled before catching himself on his bed frame.

“Woah, careful buddy,” Shiro stood up as well and rested a steadying hand on Keith’s back. “You need to change into pajamas and use the bathroom first.”

At the mention of the bathroom, Keith realized that he needed to go badly. He’d been having so much fun coloring that he hadn’t even noticed. “Oh no, gotta go potty!” He pulled away from Shiro and dashed out of his room and around the corner to the hall bathroom he shared with the other cadets on this floor. This was far from the first time he’d cut it close, and he doubted it would be the last time. Luckily, there was nobody in there to tease him about the urgency with which he had burst in.

He made sure to wash his hands thoroughly before walking back down the hallway and through his open door. “‘Kay, I’m all done,” he smiled.

“Ready to put pajamas on?” Shiro asked. “I’ll cover my eyes.”

Keith nodded and Shiro turned his back to the empty half of the room. Keith normally slept in his clothes or in just a pair of boxers and plain T-shirt, but when he was feeling little, he had a set of pajamas with little dinosaurs on them that he liked to wear. He tugged his uniform of and kicked it into the corner and then he wriggled his way out of his binder (he really should have taken it off earlier). Once he was dressed in his pajamas, he crossed his arms loosely over his chest.

“All dressed,” he called out to Shiro. “Tuck me in?”

Shiro turned back around again and walked over to him. “Want me to pick you up?”

Keith looked over his shoulder at his bed. The Garrison bed frames were lofted to allow for under bed storage, so he always had to jump to get on his. “Please,” he reluctantly uncovered his chest and held his arms out toward Shiro.

Shiro picked him up easily and rested him on his hip for the few steps it took to reach the bed. “Alright buddy, time to get some rest,” he laid Keith down and tucked the blankets in around him.

“Need hippo,” Keith pointed to the stuffed animal at the foot of the bed.

“Oh, of course,” Shiro picked hippo up and and handed him to Keith, adjusting the blanket to cover both the boy and the animal. “Do you want a hug goodnight?”

Keith nodded and sat up a little bit. A moment later, Shiro wrapped his arms around him and held him close for a few seconds. Right before he pulled away, Keith felt him press a kiss to his forehead.

“Goodnight Keith,” Shiro waved and moved to the doorway.

“Night, night,” Keith snuggled into bed as the light was turned off and the door shut.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro takes Keith shopping for little supplies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am again with another chapter! Second installment is twice as long as the first. Please note that this isn’t edited, so there might be typos.

Keith woke up early the next morning. A warm sense of contentment had settled in his chest as he slept; he basked in it for several moments before stretching his sleepy limbs and climbing out of bed to get ready.

The floor was littered with crayons from the night before and the two coloring books were still lying open. A poorly shaded cat with blue fur peaked up at him and brought a smile to his face. It seemed Shiro had more trouble staying in the lines than he did. 

"Oh fuck!" His mood does abruptly when his gaze landed on the crumpled uniform on the floor. Nothing short of a miracle would get the wrinkles out of it in time for his first class. A quick glance at the clock told him he had a little over half an hour before class started. He made the split second decision to shove it on its hangar and bring it into the bathroom with him as he showered.

Ten minutes later the uniform was still wrinkled, but it looked more like it had come out of a drawer and less like it had been abandoned in a crumpled heap. He was given a demerit for it anyway and assigned a detention period for the next day. But even that didn't do much to sully the good mood he'd gotten into, he didn't often get into good moods that lasted several days, but it was a rare treat when he did. The thought of going to the store with Shiro on Saturday got him through the week.

The weekdays stretched long, but Saturday came with surprising haste. Keith was happy enough that he couldn't keep his hands still as he ate breakfast; he'd had to stop every few bites to let them flap at his sides. He had gotten up extra early to be sure he wouldn't be late to meeting Shiro, and since it was a weekend, he could wear casual clothes and his favorite jacket which hid his chest well enough that he didn't have to bind.

"Ready to go?" Shiro asked once he found his way to Keith in the cafeteria. "It's almost a three hour drive unless you want something from the drugstore twenty minutes away."

Keith thought for a moment. "I don't mind the drive, three hours isn't bad."

Shiro smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that, I've been wanting an excuse to go to the city for a while now. I prefer not to be alone because of this," he gestured to the medical bracelet on his arm, "but Adam has been busy the last few times I've wanted to go."

"Is he coming today?" Keith asked curiously.

"No," Shiro shook his head. "He's as busy as ever today. He always tells me I work too hard, but he's the one who never takes a break. I need to pick up his anniversary gift anyway."

Keith nodded. "Makes sense," he smiled widely, wave of excitement washing over him again. "Let's go!"

It was a little less exciting two hours later when they got caught in traffic. There must have been a wreck or something similar because the line of cars stretched for miles ahead of them, far enough that the desert mirages were closer than the end of the line.

Keith had been quiet for most of the ride, it wasn't often these days that he got the chance to stare out the window of a moving vehicle and sit in silence. But now that they were stopped for the foreseeable future, the silence began to feel awkward. "Aren't you going to ask about this?" He finally asked the question he'd been wondering since the night Shiro had colored with him.

Shiro glanced him out of the corner of his eye. "I thought it would be better to let you bring it up," he told him. "I had my suspicions before the other night."

"What?!" Keith had thought he'd been secretive about it. "How?! Does anyone else know?"

"No, no, it's just me," Shiro was quick to assure him. "I should have worded that better, sorry."

Keith relaxed at that. "Okay, but how did you know?"

"Oh, right," Shiro smiled at him. "There's a few reasons. You aren't the only person I know who does that, I've learned to pick up certain cues. You get a soft expression in your eyes and your uniform is usually on wrong."

"Wow, uh, you're observant," Keith rubbed the back of his neck. "Who...?"

"I'm not going to tell without their permission," Shiro told him. "Same for you. I won't tell anybody unless you're okay with them knowing."

"Thanks," he smiled.

"If you want to talk about this more feel free, we'll be here for a while," Shiro gestured to the traffic ahead of them.

Keith was quiet for a minute before he started talking again. "I'm not good with...emotions," he started to mumble. "They're hard to understand and make me feel funny. Regressing makes it easier to handle."

"That makes sense," Shiro nodded.

"You don't think it's weird?" He picked at a stray thread poking out from the cushion's seam.

"Not at all," Shiro assured him. "Everyone has their own coping mechanisms, as long as you aren't hurting anyone, there's no judgement from me."

Keith smiled at that, the relief was overwhelming. He hadn't noticed how concerned he had been about Shiro harboring a secret disgust for him until now. "I, uh, I really liked that you stayed to color with me the other day. I'm not used to being cared for."

"Would you like to do something like that again?" Shiro asked. "I could have you over on days we're both free, I bet you would have more fun in my apartment than in your dorm. If you don't want Adam knowing, I would find another reason for him to be out."

Keith's smile widened to a grin at the thought of that. "Really?!" He couldn't keep the childlike wonder from creeping into his tone. "I'd love to. When can we do it?!"

"Later today if we don't get back too late, probably tomorrow too," Shiro told him. "But if that's too soon for you, my next free weekend is in two weeks."

Keith weighed the options. Waiting would give him time to adjust to the idea—it had been a sudden shift after all—but he was still recovering from a stressful week and that was exactly what he needed. "Maybe both?" He asked shyly, he didn't want to get too hopeful yet, Shiro might still decide he thought Keith was a freak.

"Both it is then!" Shiro's enthusiasm almost managed to assuage all of Keith's fears. "You could spend the night at my apartment tonight if you'd like. You will have to decide on whether or not you're okay with Adam knowing though."

"Hmm," Keith hummed and scratched his head. He looked out the window as he thought to see how far through the backup they were now (almost halfway). "I don't know. He's your partner, so he must be trustworthy, but I don't know him well."

"If it helps you decide, he wouldn't judge you for it," Shiro assured him. "But I don't want to pressure you either way."

Keith nodded and hummed softly. "I'll let you know by tonight."

"Sounds good to me!" Shiro smiled.

Keith yawned softly and leaned against the window. "I'm going to nap until we get there."

"I'll wake you up at our exit," Shiro promised.

Keith hummed in gratitude and let his eyes drift shut. He could fall asleep anywhere, but there were few places nicer than a patch of sunshine and he was getting plenty through the window. It only took a couple of minutes for him to start nodding off; he slept lightly enough that he didn't dream. The remaining drive felt like it took minutes rather than hours.

"Time to wake up, bud," Shiro's voice cut through the sleepy fog clouding Keith's mind and he slowly blinked awake.

"We there?" His question became almost indecipherable through a yawn.

"Just about," Shiro told him. "I need to swing by their specialty bookstore first for Adam's present and then we'll go to the other store. That good with you?"

Keith nodded. "Can I stay in the car at the bookstore?"

"Of course."

It only took a couple of minutes to get to the bookstore. Despite the size of the city, traffic wasn't bad and they found good parking.

Keith waited as Shiro disappeared behind the darkened windows of the store, but hardly five minutes passed before he came back out with a paper wrapped parcel.

"That was fast," he commented as Shiro secured his seatbelt.

"It was a special order I placed a month ago," Shiro explained. "All I had to do was give my name and pay."

"Ah." That made sense.

The other store they needed to go to was toward the center of the city, so it was another ten minutes before they got there. For Keith, who excitement had sent in for, it felt like hours. He didn't say anything, but he must have grumbled loudly enough for Shiro to hear him. "Keith, you know what I say about patience."

"Yeah," Keith huffed. He wasn't going to indulge Shiro by repeating his adage to him—he didn't even need focus! He needed to get his little supplies so he could relax later. "We've gotten stopped at every red light."

Shiro started to disagree, but settled on a sound of agreement. "I don't control the traffic cycle," he pointed out. "We will get there when we get there. Can you tell me where you're at headspace wise?"

"I'm big," he answered immediately. He hadn't wanted to regress for their trip, so he'd done the best he could to suppress that side of himself.

"If you start to slip, let me know," Shiro shot him a friendly smile. "You don't have to use words if it'll be hard; tug on my sleeve and I'll know to keep a closer eye on you."

They pulled into the parking lot as the conversation ended; it took all Keith had to wait until the car was parked before unbuckling himself.

"Hurry up!" Keith ran around to Shiro's side of the car and bounced in place until he was standing in the parking lot. "There's so much to do!" He grabbed the sleeve of Shiro's jacket and pulled him toward the entrance.

"You sure you're big?" Shiro asked in a teasing tone. "You seem really excited."

Keith rolled his eyes. He could be in a good mood and in a big head space, it just usually meant he was feeling little. "Fuck off, I can be as excited as I please," he very rarely swore when he was little, so it was a good indicator that he was big.

Shiro laughed and peeled Keith off of him once they entered the storefront. The lights inside were dim, so they had to blink a few times to adjust to it. "Do you know what all you want? I don't want you going crazy, but I can afford to get you a few things."

Keith hummed to himself and though over the list he'd been building in his head over the week. "A pacifier of course," he lowered his voice to just above a whisper. "Probably a couple if that's okay, just in case I lose one or one gets yucky and I don't want to wash it," he paused for a few moments before continuing. "Some more toys, I only have hippo and a small set of blocks. An outfit or two. I don't have much to wear besides my uniform and that's uncomfortable."

"Is that everything?" Shiro asked with a bright smile.

"Well..." Keith shifted uncomfortably. There were a couple more things but he didn't want to add anything else since this was all on Shiro's dime. "No," he shook his head, "that's all."

Shiro nodded and grabbed a cart. "Alright. You let me know if you see something you really want."

"Okay." Keith followed a couple steps behind Shiro as he snaked his way to the back of the store without so much as looking at aisle numbers.

When they stopped, they were standing in front of a whole display of pacifiers. Keith's jaw dropped looking at them; they came in every size from newborn to adult. He stared for a good two minutes before starting to decide. The pacifier he'd had before had been toddler sized, so it didn't fit his mouth perfectly, but he had liked it well enough. The newborn ones were definitely too small, but some of the adult ones looked uncomfortably large. He eventually settled on three: one the exact copy of his previous one (yellow with a rubber duck on it), one adult sized in solid red, and one in between toddler and adult sized with a red handle and a rocket ship on the shield.

"Those are good choices," Shiro smiled at him. "Do you want to look at toys or clothes next?"

"Clothes," his response was immediate. He would slip quickly if they went to the toys first.

The clothing was only a few aisles away. "Hmm, don't remember the selection being this big the last time I was here," Shiro said and he looked through a rack. "Anything in particular you wa-awww this onesie matches the jammies you have!" He turned around to show Keith a onesie with a cute dinosaur print on it. "I'm getting you this, it's so cute. What size are you?"

Keith wanted to say no, he didn't regress that small, but the thought of putting something like that on made him happy. It couldn't hurt to indulge that. "Probably a small."

Shiro put the onesie he was holding back on the rack and shuffled through hangers until finding the right size. "Have you found anything yet?"

Keith could tell his cheeks were starting to turn pink. "I'm still looking." There were a lot more clothes than he had expected; it made him start to wonder what kind of store Shiro had brought him too—something he should have thought about sooner—it obviously wasn't some kind of sex shop, but it wasn't a regular store either.

Keith spent a few more minutes browsing and returned to the cart with a pair of short overalls, a red T-shirt with a cat face, and a pair of rocket ship patterned footie pajamas. "Is this too much?" He asked shyly. He was starting to slip and was on the little side of big now, not quite on the brink, but rapidly approaching.

"Of course not," Shiro assured him. "These are very cute, you have good taste. Ready to look at toys?"

Keith nodded eagerly, the toy aisle was the best aisle of any store hands down. After his dad had died, he had never had many toys. He bounced around between foster homes too frequently to hold onto much of anything. But now he had the chance to get whatever he wanted. The choices were overwhelming; there were shelves of stuffed animals, an army of dolls, different LEGO and block sets, some puzzle toys. Everything was so colorful that it only took five minutes before Keith felt himself sink into little space. The store seemed so much bigger after that, but Shiro was at the end of the aisle so he couldn't cling onto him for comfort.

His hands started to tremble and he pulled a big stuffed rhino off of the shelf to hug as he walked to Shiro, it felt like a ten mile trek and not thirty feet. When he got to him, he made a soft noise to let him know he was there.

"Do you want that?" Shiro smiled at him.

Keith shook his head.

"Oh?" He looked a little confused. "Well, why did you bring him all the way over here?"

Keith opened his mouth to answer, but he felt too little to string words together coherently—that usually only happened when he was scared or extra stressed. Shiro had said something earlier, but he couldn't focus well enough to remember, and instead stared up at him blankly until it suddenly popped into his head and his hand shot out to tug on Shiro's sleeve.

"Oh," Shiro's voice immediately softened and offered a hand to Keith who readily took it. "Let's do this aisle together, okay bud?"

Keith nodded and slowly loosened his grip on the rhino. Shiro's presence was reassuring enough that he could relax in little space instead of it making him anxious. He let him lead the way.

"I'm not sure what kind of stuff you like," Shiro told him as they browsed through some toy trucks and army men. "There are a lot more options than I expected."

Keith nodded and looked around. Something a couple shelves over caught his eye and he pointed at it.

Shiro walked them both over a picked up a case of multicolored blocks. "This what you want?"

Keith grinned and pointed at the cart. He did already have blocks, but he didn't have enough to make anything fun with. This set would give him more than enough to make tall towers.

"See anything else you like?" Shiro asked after a minute.

Keith looked around a little bit more; after a few minutes he shook his head and clung onto Shiro's arm a little bit tighter. "Uh-uh," he mumbled.

"We can come back another time if you decide you want something else, how does that sound?" Shiro offered.

"Okay," Keith whispered. If he wasn't in public, he would have stuck his thumb in his mouth.

Shiro pushed their cart out of the aisle, but instead of turning toward the front registers, he turned in the opposite direction. Keith was about to ask what he was doing when Shiro opened his mouth. "I've got one more question for you, buddy," he whispered.

"Yeah?"

Shiro shifted for a moment as if deciding whether or not to ask his question. "The other day when you were coloring, you got really distracted and forgot to use the bathroom," he spoke softly. "Do you want me to get you some pull-ups? I don't want you to have an accident."

Keith flushed dark red to the tips of his ears. "I'm not a baby," he grumbled. The question was embarrassing enough to pull him into a big enough headspace to answer in complete sentences.

"I didn't say you were," Shiro held his hands up in surrender. "I need to grab a couple of things, and I can tell you're a big kid right now. Stay here and think for a minute, I'll be right back."

Keith protested weakly, but Shiro had been right in his assumption—he had no clue how Shiro knew he was big enough to be left alone. He reluctantly gripped onto the cart and thought about Shiro's question. He did tend to get distracted when he was little and that had led to a few rather unfortunate incidences in the past. He'd been lucky that he hadn't so much as dribbled in his pants before he made it to a toilet the other day. Usually he would end up hiding small wet spots when he snuck into the bathroom, a few times he'd had full on accidents and had had to wait until really late to assure no one would see him cleaning up. And that wasn't even mentioning the times he'd woken up with his sheets soaked. Okay. So maybe Shiro had a point.

Almost as if this thought had summoned him, Shiro came back around the corner and dropped a handful of items into the cart. "Have you made up your mind?"

Keith shifted from foot to foot and stared at the ground. "You're right," he mumbled.

"Is that a yes?"

Keith nodded shyly, he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud.

Shiro smiled at him and checked the size tags on the clothes Keith had picked out before pulling a case of nondescript pull-ups from the shelf. "Are these fine or do you want the patterned ones?"

"You pick," Keith covered his face with hands. He wanted to melt into the floor.

Shiro put the case back and Keith heard the sound of things sliding around on the shelves before something was dropped into the cart. "Ready to go now?"

Keith peaked through his fingers to see what Shiro was doing; he only nodded once he saw that he had both hands on the handle of the cart. "Let's go."

Shiro led the way to the checkout and let Keith hide behind him for the entirety of the purchase. He had a friendly conversation with the cashier and then left.

Keith had to blink several times against the bright light of the sun; it was bright enough to set off a short sneezing fit. But the bright light and the fresh air did help him come back up to a headspace somewhere between big and little—it wasn't surprising, he'd only ever regressed indoors before.

"If you're hungry, we can stop and get some food on the way back," Shiro told him. "It's a bit passed lunch time."

Keith ran his tongue over his teeth and thought. "Would a drive through work?" He asked. He wasn't a big fan on eating inside fast food restaurants.

"As long as you promise not to spill anything," Shiro smiled as he unlocked the trunk and started to unload the cart. "Can you promise me that?"

Keith helped with the smaller bags. He was too embarrassed to touch the box of pull-ups knowing who they were for. "I won't make a mess."

"Alright," Shiro nodded and unloaded the last few items. "There's a McDonald's right before our interstate entrance, that work for you."

"Yes!" Keith had an undying love for shitty fast food that he very infrequently had a chance to indulge.

"It's unanimous then," Shiro laughed. "Get in, we've got at least three more hours ahead of us."

Keith climbed into the car and buckled himself in. All of his impatience had passed earlier, so he was content to stare out the window and watch the chaos of the city around him as they drove to McDonald's. It had been a long time since he'd been somewhere this crowded, he'd gotten used to smaller crowds of people at the Garrison.

It took about twenty minutes to weave through traffic—they'd hit the end of the lunch rush. "Do you know what you want?" Shiro asked once they were next in line at the drive through.

"Six piece meal with ketchup and a coke," Keith answered. He got the same thing every time he ate there.

Shiro related both of their orders through the speaker and drove up to the next window to pay. "I switched yours to the kid's six piece meal," he said. "Hope you don't mind. You can have some of my fries if you want."

A smile crossed his face at hearing that. Shiro was treating him like a kid, but at the same time, he wasn't babying him. It was exactly how he wanted to be treated by someone who was looking out for him. "No, it's okay."

Shiro paid and then pulled up to the next window to get their already ready food—another great thing about fast food places, they were always fast. "Here you go kiddo," he set the red happy meal box on Keith's lap and put his soda into the passenger side cup holder. "You don't get to open the toy until you've finished eating, that's a rule."

"Oh come on," Keith rolled his eyes. "I'm big!"

Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Are you now?" He punctuated his question by popping a fry into his mouth. "Would have fooled me."

"Mostly big," Keith amended with a laugh. "You're really good at this."

"I've had lots of practice," Shiro shrugged. "Don't think you can trick me."

"Can I at least look at the toy?" Keith asked. "Or is that against the rules too?"

"Don't get bratty with me," Shiro laughed. "Of course you can look at it. Now eat, we have a drive ahead of us."

Keith opened his happy meal box and spread a couple napkins across his lap to make a makeshift table for his lunch. He opened his chicken nuggets and dumped his fries into the empty half of the open box. He was meticulous about organizing everything before he took his first bite. Despite his question, he didn't take the toy out of the box; he wanted it to be a surprise. He had a strange way of eating things, he tore the breading off each nugget with his teeth and then drowned in bite in an equal amount of ketchup before putting it in his mouth. He managed to do this with all of his nuggets without spilling any ketchup.

"Do you want my apple slices?" Keith offered the unopened package to Shiro. "I don't like the way they taste."

"You need to eat half of it," Shiro responded without taking his eyes off the road. "Fruit is good for you."

"This fruit is icky," Keith whined. "Tastes like preservatives."

"Half of if or I keep the toy to myself," Shiro threatened.

"You wouldn't!" Keith gasped. "That's not fair."

"Eat your apple slices."

Keith grumbled and tore the bag open, glowering at the six tiny apple slices in front of him. He had nothing against fruit—he quite liked it actually—but this fruit didn't taste anything like what it should. He grimaced and shoved the three smallest slices into his mouth all at once to get it over with. He washed the taste down with half of his soda cup. "Done."

"Good job," Shiro snuck a small look at him. "You can open your toy now."

Keith dropped the rest of the apples onto the center console and shoved his trash into the empty bag next to Shiro. When he reached into the box, he pulled out not one, but two toys. "Did you get me an extra?!"

Shiro laughed happily. "Of course I did! You've been very well behaved today."

Keith tore open the packaging for both and cradled them to his chest. They were both small beanie babies: one was a lion and the other was a frog. "I love them. Thank you."

"Feel free to nap the rest of the way back," Shiro told him. "Or think about telling Adam, I need to know by the time we get back."

"Oh, right," Keith had forgotten about that. “I’ll...think about it.”

He leaned against the window and let his eyes drift shut. He wasn’t sure what to think about Adam; they had only met a handful of times and had never spoken without Shiro there. But he was Shiro’s partner—Keith didn’t actually know what other word to use—which had to count for something. Shiro seemed confident that Adam wouldn’t think Keith was a freak, and Shiro was a good judge of character. Keith was never very good at making this type of choice.

At some point during the drive, he must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew, the car was parked and Shiro was gently shaking his shoulder. “Morning, sleepy head,” he teased. “We’re back.”

Keith blinked awake and yawned. “That was fast,” he mumbled.

“For you maybe,” Shiro laughed. “Help me unpack everything. I think we can take it in one trip if you carry all the small bags. We didn’t get anything too heavy.”

Keith climbed out of the car and walked around to the trunk. His clothes had all fit in one bag and the pacifiers were in another. In total there were only four bags he needed to carry; with a little shuffling, he managed to get all of the bags and the thing of blocks. “My arms are full.”

Shiro stacked his package from the book store on top of the thankfully unmarked pull-up box and shut the trunk. “Do you remember which one is mine or should I lead the way?”

“I remember,” Keith turned and headed to the nearest staircase, he had only been over once or twice, but the room number stuck out in his memory. He climbed three flights of stairs and waited by the door for Shiro to catch up and unlock it. “Come on, old timer! You’re so slow.”

“And you,” Shiro stopped to catch his breath, “are a brat.”

Keith grinned at him innocently and leaned against the wall. “If you say so.”

Shiro set the box down and unlocked the door. “Guest room is right here,” he gestured to a door right inside the entryway. “Let’s get all your stuff in here.”

Keith’s right hand was just free enough that he managed to open that door. He dumped everything onto the bed and sat down next to it.

Shiro followed closely behind and shut the door behind him. “I’m sure you’d like some time alone after being out shopping today,” he smiled. “Make yourself comfortable, I’ll come check on you soon. What do you want me to say to Adam.”

Keith worried at his bottom lip. “I, uhh...” he shifted uncomfortably as he came to a decision. “You can tell him,” he spoke carefully. “But I don’t want to be in the room when you do.”

“Of course, buddy,” Shiro crouched down in front of him. “I’ll tell him and then he and I can get dinner ready. I’ll come get you then, is that okay?”

Keith nodded. That would be enough time to adjust to the idea of two people seeing him in little space. Plus he would have an easier time regressing when nobody was looking at him. “Yeah.”

“Sounds good,” Shiro straightened up and left the room, taking one of the bags and his paper wrapped parcel with hm. “Be back soon,” he said as he closed the door.

Keith let out a breath and slowly turned to look through the bags. He had gotten so many things, the biggest challenge was picking what to open or try on first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, alternate universe in which McDonald’s still has good toys is not a rage, but it should be. Hope you liked this! Next chapter will be Keith’s little day with Shiro (and probably Adam at least in the background).


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, life has certainly been happening. aaaaa. Here is chapter three, I hope y'all enjoy it

Keith went through the bags first, pulling each object out one by one and lining them up on the bed. He tore the tags off of the clothes and ripped open the packaging for the pacifiers. He wanted to put one in his mouth, but he knew it needed to be cleaned first.

He hadn't known he was going to be spending the night at Shiro's when he had left that morning, so he didn't have any pajamas or a change of clothes with him. The best course of action seemed to be changing into one of the little outfits and rewearing his current clothes when he left the next day. He looked at each piece of clothing and debated the merit of each before deciding on keeping his current shirt on and putting the short overalls on over it. It wasn't until he'd made this choice that his gaze wandered over to the box on the floor.

Keith stepped over to it and slowly tore the tape off until he was able to wrestle open the top of it. There were four sealed bags inside of it, each filled with twelve pull-up diapers. He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath before tearing open the packaging of one bag; he was immediately hit with the slightly sweet scent of a dry diaper. It didn't seem that the prospect of putting one on would get less embarrassing the more he thought about it, so it seemed best to just jump right in; he could always tear it off if he ended up hating it.

He slowly undressed himself, leaving on only his socks a T-shirt. Everything else—his pants, boxers, and jacket—he folded and set on a nightstand. The pull-up was patterned with animal faces and there were little blue paw prints scattered about; wetness indicators. He was not fond of the idea of it, but he stepped in, right leg first and then left, and then he pulled it up until it was snug against his hips. Immediately, he felt much smaller than he had the moment before.

Getting into the overalls proved to be a bit of a challenge; his fine motor skills had never been anything to write home about which meant fastening the buttons was no easy task. Starting to slip into little space also didn't help with that problem. He struggled, but felt a small surge of pride at managing to get the last snap secured properly.

Almost as soon as he was dressed, he heard a soft knock on the door followed by Shiro's voice, "I'm coming in," he said, the door opening. "Are you decent?" Shiro had one hand covering his eyes.

"I'm dressed," Keith mumbled. The idea of being seen in this often sent a weird feeling down his spine and gave him the final push into little space. He felt a little younger than usual, perhaps a two to his normal three or four.

Shiro uncovered his eyes and looked at Keith. "You got dressed all by yourself?" He smiled at him.

Keith nodded proudly.

"Good job buddy!" Shiro walked over to him and ruffled his hair. "I talked to Adam and he's going to make you homemade mac and cheese for dinner, does that sound good?"

"Yummy," Keith mumbled around his thumb—he hadn't noticed that going into his mouth.

Shiro gently pulled Keith's hand away from his face. "That's icky, your hands aren't clean," he reprimanded lightly. "How about this, you pick one of your new pacifiers, and we take it out to the kitchen to get clean. I've even got a clip for you," he procured a red pacifier clip with panda bear faces on it.

Keith searched the bed for where he'd set the pacifiers and selected the small yellow one. It was the smallest, but also the most familiar. "Want this one," he held it out.

Shiro took it by the handle and took Keith's hand as well. "Do you want to watch cartoons?" He asked as he lead him out of the room. "We could get your blocks out and play on the rug while they're on."

"'Toons?!" Keith hadn't watched cartoons in forever. He felt silly whenever he tried watching them on his phone, the screen was too small for him to enjoy it. "Please!"

Shiro brought him into the small living room and sat him down on the nice, soft rug in front of the tv; it was a much better rug than the one in his dorm room. "Here you go," Shiro turned on the tv and navigated to a cartoon channel with a few clicks of a button. "You stay right here, I'm going to get your pacifier cleaned up and grab you your blocks. If you need anything, you let Adam know."

Keith nodded and hummed in contentment. The cartoons were meant for very young kids, so he could follow the plot easily, and he liked all the bright colors and the happy music. Half an episode passed before Shiro made it back to him, and he was so entranced, that he barely noticed.

"Here you go bud," Shiro clipped the pacifier clip to the left strap of Keith's overalls and popped the pacifier into his mouth. "It's all clean!" He booped the tip of Keith's nose and grinned at him.

Keith giggled enough that the pacifier fell straight out, but the clip caught it. "You're silly Sh-Sh..." he furrowed his brow as he tried to shape the word with his mouth. It ended up coming out as, "Siwo," when he finally managed it.

Shiro laughed and ruffled Keith's hair. "Ready to play with your new blocks?" He slid the container in front of Keith and unzipped it. "They look like lots of fun."

Keith pulled the container toward himself and pulled out blocks one handful at a time until they were all on the rug. He hummed to himself as he sorted them by color, shape, and size. The cartoon became background noise as he laser focused on his task; there had to be over a hundred blocks, and he needed to make sure every single one of them was sorted properly before he started to play with them. He didn't realize he was wiggling in place until he felt a sudden burst of warmth between his legs, but instead of spreading down and away, it spread up and back.

He jumped to his feet immediately, but it was too late. He was having an accident. "Shiro, potty!" He half cried, dancing in place as his accident overflowed his pull-up and ran out the sides, leaving a dark wet spot down both legs of his overalls. As soon as he was done, his bottom lip quivered, and the tears that had welled up in his eyes spilled over onto his cheeks.

Shiro was at his side right away, wiping away tears and pulling him into a hug despite the wet spots. "It's okay, it was just an accident," he assured him. "I should have made sure you went potty before you started playing, I knew you hadn't been in a while."

Keith snuffled and buried his face against Shiro's shirt. "I'm s-sorry, I didn't mean to," he stammered. Fear of getting in trouble messed with his headspace enough to make him feel closer to five now.

"I know, buddy," Shiro rubbed his back. "We can get you all cleaned up."

Keith clung tightly to Shiro and refused to let go. "I'm sorry," he repeated.

"Shh, it's okay," Shiro rocked him back and forth by leaning from side to side. "Hey, Adam, can you come help us out over here?" He called over his shoulder into the kitchen.

Keith didn't loosen his hold, but he did pull back far enough to peek at Adam when he came over. "What do you need help with?" Adam asked.

"Could you find something that will fit him?" Shiro continued to rub Keith's back as he talked to Adam. "He doesn't have much to change into."

"Of course," Adam set down what he was cooking with with a quiet metallic thunk of metal against countertop. "I'll see if I can find that pair of drawstring sweatpants."

"Thanks love," Shiro smiled and turned his attention back to Keith. "Can you follow me to the bathroom? I want to help you."

Keith sniffled. "O-okay," he nodded. "Are you sure you're not mad?"

"Not in the slightest," Shiro assured him. "Come on buddy, let's get you cleaned up," he took Keith's hand and gently led him into the bathroom across from the guest room. "Would you like a bath?"

Keith shook his head but then tipped it to the side. "Bubble bath?" He asked quietly.

"I think I have something for that," Shiro smiled at him, opening the bathroom cupboard and pulling out a bottle of bubble bath mix.

Keith clapped his hands together and smiled for the first time since his accident. "Bubble bath!"

"I'll get the water running for you," Shiro said, turning on the bath and adjusting the water to a good temperature. "I'll get your overalls in the washer while you clean up, I'll put in your other clothes as well so they'll be clean for later. Are you okay with cleaning up on your own?"

Keith nodded. "Yeah, I can do that," he told him.

Shiro poured a capful of bubble bath mix into the bathtub. "I'll turn around while you undress, I can take care of the pull-up and the overalls once you're in the tub," he replaced the bubble bath bottle and pulled out a fluffy yellow towel. "Dry off with this when you're done."

Once Shiro's back was turned, Keith went about unfastening the overalls and let everything fall to the floor, except for his shirt, which he folded and set on the counter. He stepped into the tub and slid down until everything below his chin was covered in bubbles. "Thanks Shiro."

"No problem buddy!" Shiro seemed to have an intuitive sense for when to turn around, because he turned the moment Keith was submerged. "I'm going to leave the door cracked in case you need anything," he bent down to pick up Keith's dirty clothes. "Just call for one of us if you need something," he unclipped the pacifier from the overalls and rested it on top of Keith's shirt before leaving.

Keith was still on the edge of tears from having an accident, so instead of playing with the bubbles, he stuck his thumb in his mouth and leaned against the back of the tub. The water was the perfect temperature, not too warm or too cold. It was very relaxing.

After quite some time—maybe twenty to thirty minutes, the water had cooled significantly—he was relaxed enough that he could open his eyes again. Most of the bubbles were gone by then, but the residual soap left the water cloudy enough that he didn't have to get much of a look at his body; little or not, that was always a bonus. He would have liked some toys to play with, but he made due with splashing around in the remaining bubbles until those too were gone.

"Shiro!" He called out after a while. "It's all cold," he struggled with the plug to let the water start draining.

"You ready to get out?" Shiro's voice was just loud enough to make it across the apartment. "Give me a minute to bring you your clothes. Adam, did you find the sweatpants?"

"They're on the hall table, babe," Adam's voice was accompanied by the clanging of a pot on the stove.

"Thanks, dear."

Keith busied himself with climbing out of the tub as the two of them talked. He wrapped himself tightly in the towel and stood in place, shivering slightly. That was always the worst part of taking a bath: the chill of cold air after climbing out of hot water. He stood and waited as drops of water dripped from the ends of his long hair and splashed the back of his legs.

Footsteps outside of the bathroom announced Shiro's presence before a knock did. "I'm coming in," the doorknob turned and in walked Shiro with a bundle of dry clothing.

"Cold," Keith grumbled.

"Sorry for taking so long, bud," Shiro smiled. "Here, I brought you an old pair of sweatpants, we might have to cuff the legs for you since they're Adam's. I got you some socks as well so your feet don't get cold, and I got you a dry pull-up just in case," he deposited the armful of clothing onto the bathroom counter. "Do you want help getting dressed?"

Keith was silent for long enough that Shiro took it as a no and turned to leave. "Wait," he reached a hand out and grabbed Shiro's sleeve. "I...I wan' help. Jus' don't look at me," he shifted uncomfortably and tightened the towel.

Shiro smiled and turned toward him, though his eyes stayed focus on a far away point. "Alright, I bet you're all dry now," he picked up Keith's shirt as he spoke. "Do you wanna hang the towel up and hold your arms up for me?"

Keith didn't want to speak, so he answered by turning his back to Shiro and hanging the yellow towel up on the hook near the bathtub. Lifting his arms up felt a bit silly, but he did so anyway. Not a moment later, his shirt was being pulled on, sticking to his wet hair for a few seconds in the process. He giggled softly at that.

"You'll have to get this on yourself," Shiro handed him the pull-up. "I don't know if I can do it without looking. If you need help balancing, hold onto my arm."

Keith's cheeks reddened from embarrassment, but he spent less time debating it than he had the first time. It was harder to pull on with slightly damp skin, so he did end up grabbing onto Shiro a few times before he had it on securely. "You can look now," he mumbled shyly.

Shiro looked back at him and smiled brightly. "Aww! Look at you, aren't you just the cutest?"

Keith flushed further and he covered his face with his hands. "Stop it! Stop it!" He tried to hide from the attention.

"Alright," Shiro laughed. "I'll tone it down, little guy," he promised. "Ready to get your pants on?"

Keith peaked through his fingers and dropped his hands to his side once he saw that Shiro was holding the sweatpants out for him to step into. "Okay." He stepped his right leg in first and then his left. Shiro did the rest of the work and pulled them up, cinching the drawstring around Keith's waist and cuffing the legs for him.

"There you go," Shiro patted Keith's pull-up through the sweatpants. "You're all dressed."

"Hey!" Keith's cry of protest was muffled by his thumb.

"Uh uh, buddy," Shiro pulled Keith's thumb from his mouth and replaced it with his pacifier which he quickly clipped to his shirt. "Remember what I said about your hands? They're icky."

Keith grumbled incomprehensibly around the pacifier.

"Let's head back out," Shiro suggested.

Keith held his arms up in the universal sign for 'carry me.'

Shiro obliged him and rested him on his hip on the way back to the living room where he gently deposited him back onto the soft rug. "Hey Adam, could you brush Keith's hair? I'm worried it'll get tangled and you do a better job with that than I do."

"Is Keith okay with it?" Adam asked from the kitchen. From the looks of it, he was almost done with what he was doing.

"Keith, can Adam brush your hair?" Shiro asked.

Keith gave a small nod.

"He says yes," Shiro walked into the kitchen and kissed Adam on the cheek. "Let me take over, I can handle stirring for a few minutes. No fires."

Adam disappeared into his and Shiro's bedroom and came back out with a hairbrush. "Come here Keith," he pointed to the spot in front of where he sat on the couch. "Take a seat."

Keith crawled toward him and shyly sat on the floor between Adam's feet. He noticed the man was wearing mismatched socks and giggled at that. This was the closest he'd ever been to him, but that helped calm him. "Silly," he pointed at the socks.

"Yeah?" Adam stamped his feet up and down, causing Keith to laugh harder. "Alright, you gotta hold still now. I'll be gentle, let me know if it tugs."

Keith stilled himself and hummed in confirmation. The last person who brushed his hair for him had been his father; he didn't like thinking about how long ago that had been.

"I have three sisters, so I have a lot of practice with this," Adam explained as he began the process. Keith's hair was thick, and he hadn't had a haircut in several months, so there were plenty of places where his hair knotted, but Adam was gentle and patient. The brush caught a few times, but each time, Adam would ease up on it and slowly work it out so it wouldn't hurt. Before he knew it, all the knots were gone from Keith's hair.

"Wow!" Keith opened his mouth wide enough that his pacifier fell out. "Didn' hurt. Thanks Ada'."

"No problem," Adam smiled at him. "It's long enough to be braided, would you like that? I have an elastic."

Keith nodded happily. "Yeah!" Back when he'd thought he was a girl, he'd loved having his hair braided—it was some of the only effort he'd put into his appearance. Realizing he was trans hadn't changed that.

"Braided it is then," Adam gestured for him to face forward again. He split Keith's hair into three segments and had them twisted into a basic braid only a couple minutes later. "Is this too tight?" He asked as he secured the tie.

Keith moved his head to test it. "Uh uh. 'S good," he grinned at Adam. "Blocks?" He pointed to the pile of sorted blocks still spread across the rug. "Play?"

"After dinner, okay?" Adam stood up and backed into the kitchen. "It's almost done."

Keith pouted a bit, but decided to sort the blocks again into slightly different piles. This time he sorted them so that each unique style of block had its own pile, even the ones that only had two blocks of one type. By the time he had finished, the timer on the oven had gone off and the vegetables on the stove had finished cooking.

Shiro came over and tapped Keith on the shoulder to get his attention. "Dinner's ready, bud," he told him. "Are you ready to eat?"

Keith's brow furrowed and he pointed at the blocks. "No play?" He frowned

"Play time is after dinner," Shiro spoke softly. "You have it all sorted so it's ready when you come back. Do you want me to count to twenty and then we get up for dinner?"

Keith nodded and slowly sat up and Shiro counted the seconds out loud. He wasn't sure when Shiro had picked up on his need for a clear indicator before task switching, but even little he was grateful for it.

"-neteen, twenty!" Shiro finished counting and held his hand out to help Keith up. "Ready?"

Keith took the hand and let himself be pulled to his feet. Shiro led him to the table and sat him down in front of a sectioned plate with cartoon rabbits on it.

Adam was already seated at the table when Shiro and Keith arrived. "Hand me your plates and I'll serve you," he smiled.

Keith held out the rabbit plate and got a small scoop of macaroni and a few pieces of broccoli. "Thanks," he poked at his food with a fork for a while, ignoring Shiro whispering something in Japanese over his own plate.

Keith was far from a picky eater—growing up in foster homes had done that for him—but he did have some texture aversions. First bites were always the worst, so he liked to prolong that experience in case it was a bad one. This often meant his food got cold before he ate it.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Shiro spoke up after a few minutes. "Would you like something to drink?"

Keith looked up from his as of yet untouched food and nodded. "Juice?"

Shiro got up and pulled a sippy cup out of a cupboard, filling it with apple juice before setting it in front of Keith. "Here you go," he smiled. "And hey, I see you playing with your food, you need to eat it. I promise you you'll like it."

Keith took a sip of his juice and looked back at his plate without saying anything. Were he big, he might question why there seemed to be so much kid stuff in the apartment, but the thought didn't cross his mind in his little state. After a few more minutes of poking at his food, he squeezed his eyes shut and took a bite. Shiro was right, he did like it. He finished his entire helping and held his plate out to get more.

"Someone's hungry," Adam chuckled. "Glad you like it."

Keith picked his plate up and licked the wells clean after his second portion, smearing cheese sauce all over his face in the process. "Yummy!" He grinned at both of them.

"You're such a messy little boy," Shiro laughed as he stood up to put his plate in the dishwasher. He came back with a damp cloth and wiped the mess off of Keith's face as he wriggled away from the cold.

"Hey!" Keith protested, unsuccessfully attempting to push Shiro's hand away.

"Uh uh, little guy," Shiro laughed and he finished cleaning him up. "Don't think you can stop me."

Keith crossed his arms and pouted. "You're a meanie," he grumbled. "Gonna play with Ada' not you."

"He's likes me better," Adam teased in a singsong. "Looks like you get to clean up dinner, babe; our guest wants to play with me." He got up from the table and offered his hand to Keith.

Keith took it hesitantly and let Adam lead him back to the rug. "Play blocks," Keith sat down in front of his neatly sorted piles.

"Do you want to make a tower?" Adam asked. "You can knock it over when it's done."

Keith nodded but said nothing in favor of sticking his pacifier back into his mouth. Adam sat across from him and they wordlessly constructed a base for the tower. The bigger, rectangular blocks went on the bottom, and the smaller, triangular blocks went on the top. The building process was quiet save for the occasional, "Careful," from Adam when Keith would send the tower almost toppling by placing a block too hard. After several minutes , the tower had reached the height of Keith's shoulders and swayed dangerously every time they placed a new block on. "Here's the last one," Adam pressed a small, half circle block into Keith's hand. "Put it on top and then you can knock it over."

Keith's hand shook slightly, but he managed to get the block in place without causing the blocks to fall. He stepped back to stare at it for a moment, then in one fell swoop, he kicked the base of the tower with a gleeful laugh and sent the tower toppling across the rug. "Again, again!"

Adam laughed and helped Keith gather the blocks from where they had been scattered, and they started the process over again. They built a base, and then the tower went up, up, up, until Keith would send it crashing down with a laugh. The longer they played, the more involved Adam got; he started making sound effects that would send Keith into giggling fits, and then he'd start laughing as well. Neither of them noticed Shiro watching from the other room with a soft smile adorning his features.

After the tower had been constructed and destroyed at least five times, Adam scooted back from the toys and looked back over his shoulder to find Shiro. "Hey, T-T...'Kashi, can you come here?"

Shiro set aside the last of the dishes and walked over to Adam, crouching down next to where he was sat. "Everything alright dear?"

Adam leaned up to whisper something into Shiro's ear that Keith couldn't make out. When he pulled back, Shiro held his hand out and helped Adam to his feet. "Thanks for letting me play with you," Adam smiled at Keith. "I gotta do something else now though." He walked off before Keith could respond.

Shiro turned his head and followed Adam with his gaze until he disappeared into their shared bedroom. "It's starting to get late," he told Keith. "Would you like to keep playing or do you want to get ready for bed?"

A small furrow formed on Keith's brow as he pouted at the sudden loss of his playmate. He had only just started playing, it couldn't be that late yet. "Wanna play," he mumbled around his pacifier.

Shiro nodded. "Alright buddy, do you want me to play with you?"

"I'll play by myself," Keith turned his back on Shiro and began to sort his blocks again. As he made small piles on the floor, Shiro turned on an animated movie and sat down on the couch.

Once Keith had sorted and resorted his blocks three times over again, he began to yawn and rubbed at his eyes sleepily.

"Are you getting tired?" Shiro asked softly.

Keith turned to blink at him blearily and nodded. "Long day," he mumbled.

"Come here," Shiro held his arms out toward him and Keith scooted across the rug. "Do you want to sit with me and watch the rest of this movie? It'll be over soon and then I'll get you to bed."

Keith nodded and let Shiro pick him up. He drifted in and out of a light sleep as the movie played on the screen; it was something colorful and cheerful with talking animals, he had never seen it before. By the time the end credits were rolling, Shiro had to gently shake Keith to wake him up. "Hmm, sleepy," Keith grumbled as he squinted against the light of the room.

"I know, sleepyhead," Shiro laughed softly and sat them both up. "It's time for you to get to bed. Hold on, I'll carry you."

Keith looped his arms around Shiro's neck and let him pick him up. He kept his eyes shut and didn't open them until he was set on the cold floor of the bathroom. "Cold," he pouted up at Shiro, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I know, but you have to go potty before bedtime so you don't have an accident in your sleep," Shiro urged him.

"I don't gotta," he protested, though the shifting dance of his legs said otherwise.

"If you don't go potty before bed, I'll have to wake you up in a few hours to change you," Shiro pointed out. "You wouldn't want to wake you up early, would you?"

Keith grumbled an incoherent response, but he did take the three steps to the toilet and pull down his pants and the pull-up. Shiro dutifully looked the other way until the toilet had flushed and the sink turned on so Keith could wash his hands. "Carry me," Keith reached for Shiro again. "Don't wanna walk."

Shiro picked Keith up once again, and this time when he set him down, it was at the foot of the guest bed. "It's a bit warm for the jammies you picked out, would you like to wear something else to sleep in?"

Keith thought for a moment, the process hazy with tiredness clouding over his already little mindset. "Yeah, is too warm," he gestured at his outfit.

Shiro stepped back to rummage through Keith's bags and pulled out the dinosaur print onesie. "Can I put you in this?"

The darkness hid the bright red flush of Keith's cheeks when he nodded. His pacifier was unclipped from his shirt and set aside for the moment. The changing process was wordless and slow since Shiro looked away when Keith took his shirt off. It took a few minutes before Shiro was able to secure the bottom snaps of the onesie; Keith immediately felt himself sink lower into little space.

"G'nigh' Siwo," Keith blinked sleepily. "Had lotsa fun. 'Ank you."

Shiro popped Keith's pacifier back into his mouth and tucked him in. "Goodnight buddy," he kissed the top of his head. "I'll see you in the morning."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have troves of motivation lying about currently, so I do not know when/if this will be next updated. If you read this, thanks for reading, I love you and I hope you are doing well <3

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! This was just an introduction, I hope to continue this further. 
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at babiekeith (I am not super active)


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